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Is Technology Killing Language of Young People

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Is Technology Killing Language of Young People
Brian Anderson

Language is not dying due to technology, it is expanding and evolving as technology advances. In this paper I will attempt to argue texting and linguistics brought about by technology are not necessarily the downfall of writing and communication of young adults, but instead try and point the direction towards texting and communicating using technology is another branch of language and literacy.
There is a consensus among people that technology e.g. the Internet, SMS (Short Message Service, and communication via hand-held devices, among other things, is killing language as we know it. Literacy, spelling, and knowledge of words is dying among younger generations and the killer, some think, is technology, specifically texting.
The fact that words and language can be symbolized, shortened, and recreated to words and phrases that fit within 140 characters must be making people who find ways to shorten and abbreviate words and phasing dumber than those who, twenty years ago, had no Twitter, or texting, LOLs (laugh out loud). Right?
Many think texting, technology, communicating via hand-held devices will kill literacy and continue with the explosion of linguistic evils of texting and downward spiral that is writing and speaking as we know it. Such prophecies include the erosion of children and young adult’s ability to spell, punctuate, and capitalize correctly.
Children and young adults “could not be good at texting if had not already developed considerable literacy awareness. Before you can write abbreviated forms effectively and play with them, you need to have a sense of how the sounds of your language relate to the letters. You need to know that there are such things as alternative spellings,”(Crystal,2008).
Language has been around since the dawn of time. Writing has not. Today, people are

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